Scottie Scheffler posted a final-round 67 to finish two ahead of Robert MacIntyre, who lost a four-shot lead on the final day; Scheffler leads the FedExCup standings ahead of Rory McIlroy
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it was a tough day out there. The greens got really tough to putt there towards the end, and it was a challenging day.
I was starting four shots back but got myself into the tournament pretty quickly there on the front nine and did a lot of good stuff out there and would have liked to have had a few less mistakes, but overall great battle all the way through. Did a good job of staying patient and executing when we needed to.
Q. How did you play that chip on 17? What did you see? What were you trying to do and what would you have been happy with realistically?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I missed it on the correct side. I think that’s the most important. It was a chip we practiced. I knew how fast it was, and basically it was just trying to get it on the green. It was kind of a bowl pin back there to where everything kind of funnels towards it, and I knew it was just going to be really fast, and do my best to get it down there and give myself a good look for par. When it came out, it came out how we wanted to and then it started breaking and it started looking better and better, and yeah, it was definitely nice to see that one go in.
Q. The course underwent major renovations since 2021. Can you talk through the changes and how you felt it played?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think it definitely played more difficult this week than it did a few years ago. Greens definitely had a lot of pitch to them. Yeah, the golf course changed significantly. I think they tried to make it more difficult, which obviously I think the winning score this year was much different than it was a few years ago, and I think they accomplished their mission in that sense.
Q. On 17, to have a moment like that and you’re still so close to it, it wasn’t long ago, but that’s one of those iconic, oh, my gosh, long-term kind of memories happening. Do you sense that, feel that? Do you know that when it’s happening?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I knew it was an important shot in the golf tournament. Bob made a nice birdie there on 16, and I knew it was going to be a battle all the way until the end. Starting the day four shots back, Bob made some mistakes early in the round, but I knew he wasn’t going to make many more as the day went on. He did a good job of battling all day without his best stuff.
When that chip goes in, you know it’s a pretty cool shot, but the job is not nearly finished after that. Bob could just as easily chip his in, and you don’t know what’s going to happen, so you’ve got to stay focused and did a good job hitting the fairway and the green there on 18 and gave myself a pretty stress-free par.
Q. Obviously you have Cromie on the bag; I know Ted is obviously where he needs to be, but weird to not have Ted in those big moments down the stretch like he’s always been the last couple years?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it was definitely different for sure. But Cromie was doing a great job. He’s a guy I can trust. He’s one of Ted’s good buddies.
I’d just say it’s pretty much as simple as that. Cromie is a guy that works hard. He does his prep work, and he was an easy guy for me to trust out there.
I felt like we did a good job of talking through our shots and staying patient and keep doing the right things even when things were looking a little bit squirrelly there on the back nine. We did a good job of staying focused and continuing to hit shots at the right targets. Closed the tournament out nicely.
Q. Do you feel like you guys talked any less than you would with Ted or did it feel similar in the cadence and how often you were going there?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: That’s something I’ll have to reflect on later. Overall I’m not a guy that talks a ton out there on the golf course. Cromie, I think, does a really good job of being really even keel. He’s not a guy that’s going to overreact to anything. He did a really good job of just staying even keel all week and kind of impervious to the pressure of a final round, and he did a really good job.
Q. Mark just said 18 wins; does that sound like a lot to you?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah. I mean, it’s been a nice stretch the last few years and I’ve done some really good things. It’s nice to get the results from a lot of hard work. That’s not something I think about day-to-day. I try to approach everything week by week, and when you really boil down to it, just day by day.
This week was a good week. It was a battle all the way through. Fortunate to be sitting here.
Q. You said yesterday that you weren’t really happy with your ball-striking and the chances you were giving yourself. Did you feel like you did a better job of that today? Seemed like you gave yourself a lot of looks in the first 11 holes.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I definitely was sharper with the irons today. In this game you’re always looking for a little bit more out of yourself pretty much at all times, so I can think of a few that I wish I would have hit a little sharper. But I hit some really nice shots into — really good wedge into 7, good shot into 8, good wedge into 11.
Probably outside of the chip-in on 17, shot of the day was probably on 15 coming out of that bunker. That was a really important shot in the tournament, one that I think will fly a little bit under the radar.
I had just made a sloppy three-putt on the hole before to kind of let Bob back into the tournament. Kind of brought my lead only back down to one, and all of a sudden he hits it in there about seven feet on 15, it’s a golf tournament now. I stepped up there and hit it inside of him to about six and a half feet and was able to hole that putt.
I can’t tell you how difficult it was to putt these greens late in the day. Obviously with it being bentgrass greens, there gets to be a few spike marks and they got really fast out there. There’s a lot of slope. So they were pretty challenging to putt.
Q. Bob bogeys the first two, you birdie the first one, and then after 5 you were kind of in control there. Do you have an awareness that he’s a little bit on the back foot and you have an opportunity to take advantage, or is it still more about executing your game?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, it’s always about executing my game, but I knew I needed to get off to a good start today and Bob gave me a couple gifts there early in the round.
All of a sudden I went from being four back to we were standing on the third tee and I’m only one back, and all of a sudden, it’s like, all right, it’s game on now. No more cushy lead; it’s time to go get it. We did some good things there on the front nine and then kept him at bay there on the back nine.
Bob is a great player. I knew him making some mistakes early, he wasn’t going to continue to do that all day. He was going to fight and claw his way back, which he did, and he should be proud of the fight that he had this week, and it was a good battle out there.
Q. Who club did you hit on 15 out of the bunker?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: 8-iron.
Q. It looked like you were on the verge of — as well as you were hitting the ball from like 6 through about 14 or 15, it looked like you were on the verge of pulling away and didn’t. Kind of let Bob stay in it. I’m curious if you sensed that. I don’t imagine this happens to you a lot, but how do you talk yourself through it when you’re not getting as much out of the round as you could and you’re making it tighter than it could be?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: That’s always frustrating when the rounds get — when you’re not getting as much out of the round as you would hope. But I was putting myself in position, doing the right things. I didn’t really feel like I was doing a lot of stuff wrong. It was just very challenging out there.
I knew if I continued to execute and stay patient that things were eventually going to go my way. Really, it all just boils down to execution. I think sometimes throughout the course of a round like that, if you’re not getting the most out of it, it can be frustrating, and then things can kind of snowball from there.
But did a good job of staying patient and executing when it really mattered.
